…
It probably started
in a whisper, a murmur,
a low tone hardly caught by the papers,
a sticker, a poster,
a brick wall with slogans in fresh black paint
because
it probably started with a shove,
some bluster, a gunshot,
crushed fingers, it probably started
with a speech that caught the right ears
on an otherwise happy day,
yellow flowers in a wooden stand on the sidewalk,
red apples, radio
trying hard to smooth out the mood,
kid hurrying past, thinking,
God, is that man on the corner
shouting
about me,
pulls his hat low,
it probably started
with another man
drunk on swagger,
it probably started
with a small crowd
coaxing exciting lies,
it probably started
with a neighborhood’s head bowed
as the drone grows each day
(though they’ll claim
it came
in a quick, monstrous surprise).
by Matt Mason, written in 2016, published in 2020
“If violent language doesn’t get restrained, that eventually leads to real violence.”
He is right! Today we mourn a young man whose beliefs I didn’t share, yet my heart is heavy and my thoughts are with his family. A life taken, silenced with a gun.
No matter what side we are on, we need to come together and stop this insanity. It’s too much, too violent…on both sides. Attacks in their homes, snipers on rooftops, fires set at night. This all has to stop! Now!
Too often the news will say things like – argument ends in gunfire, fight escalated to shots fired, disagreement ends in death. We’re not going to agree much of the time but that is part of the beauty of us all being different. We cannot “take out” whoever doesn’t share our views. Life is precious and we should respect it. Image if we all looked alike and sounded alike and felt alike… the world would lose its gloriously beautiful variety. You don’t have to love everyone… but let them live. Disgusts me that this continues every day. 😣
It disgusts me too—and you and me, we are not the only ones. I don’t know if you saw Bernie Sander’s message online on youTube but he nailed it. I wish these words would come from the White House.
I will have to look for Bernie’s take on all of this, thanks for the heads up.
Ooh, I just went to YouTube and looked that message up. BRILLIANTLY stated! There is a lot said there that many could learn from.
We can but hope
Reminds me of Project 2025. It was there as plain as day waiting to be read, but nobody did & now they’re shocked. “We didn’t vote for this.”
We tried to tell them …
I read over 600 pages of Project 2025, we are moving as planned 🙁
Nice to see you on my blog. I wanted to share so much with you but didn’t want to bother. Guess what, my ‘book’ is in editing. 🙂
It started and gathered momentum . . . and now seems beyond being able to be caught .
Sadly, I think you are right.
Yes, yes, yes 💔😭
Yes it always starts quietly, that’s the way the organizers of these things like it. Quietly so we don’t notice until it’s too big to stop. It’s already bigger than anything I could ever imagine happening in our country.
It’s much bigger that I feared and it’s just the beginning. I find it so depressing and I don’t blog much anymore because it’s so hard to pretend everything is wonderful and optimistic when I don’t feel it anymore.
I know.
The people who need to hear are not listening!
They never listen. It’s frustrating.
Those that organize these things always start it quiet. So as not to disturb us, to make us think this is normal…it’s already normalizing things that I could never believe would be normal here.
I didn’t believe this could happen here either, yet here we are.
Yes!! 😭♥️♥️♥️🙏